LITTLE FALLS— The Passaic River at Little Falls crested at 14.19 feet at 8 a.m. this morning, more than 7 feet above flood stage but more than three feet shy of the record. It is not expected to fall below major flood stage until 8 a.m. Friday.

Earlier this morning, public works employees were marking off the record reach of the water with spray paint. Two blocks away from the river, a fire hydrant was submerged up to its cap. The water stretched to reach an extra property on most streets in the last 12 hours.

Some 400 residents from the peninsula the Passaic makes a sharp turn around are evacuated. Monday some residents at the edge of the floodwater were hurriedly filling sandbags.

Locals who were out this morning said it was the worst flooding ever.

"It's higher than it's ever been," said Kristen Raymore, who was out for an early stroll along the shore.

The river has swirled to reach more than a football field beyond its previous highwater mark, said Tara Zailo, a lifelong resident. The fact that the river is lapping over Main Street is absolutely stunning, she said.

"It's deep and it's flowing — which is strange."

"It's not the kind of record we want to break," said Joseph Probik, a 37-year resident of Little Falls.

Karen Sessing, who lives near the Passaic River, but on Garrabrant Avenue in a section that rarely floods, said Irene brought worse flooding than the last freak storm in the spring of 1984.

"We don't generally get hit by hurricanes," Sessing said, looking across a long stretch of water that reached two feet deep at her house. "Every inch counts at this point."

The floods have become more frequent, and this latest hurricane is just the latest — and wettest — reminder, Sessing said.

The devastation is overwhelming, even as far inland as Main street. At Banyan High School, a roman catholic high school, classes are unlikely to open next week as planned because of feet of water in the music room, cafeteria and other places, said Mark McGauley, a maintenance man at the school. Even the boys' room urinals are still spraying because of the pressure in the water system.

"It's coming out like a fountain — it's not a pretty sight," McGauley said. "Instruments are floating in the music room. But there's not much we can do until the water goes down. This is what we got — it's a disaster."

Little Falls administrator Henry Underhill said the evacuated might not be able to get back to their homes until Friday or even Saturday. The National Guard detachment is on hand to help with emergencies such as evacuations and fires, if they happen. But otherwise the town is just helping out by providing shelter at the municipal community center as it does in the floods that strike the northwestern nook of Little Falls.

"Unfortunately, they have it down to a routine," Underhill said. "There's basically nothing you can do until the water goes down."

The town is urging people stranded in floodwaters to call 973 256 0301 and tell the town they're stuck.

Fred Batelli, the OEM coordinator for Little Falls, said the town rescued 19 people yesterday and none today — so far.

"Anyone who needed to evacuate should have done so long ago," Batelli said.

Linda Gensinger, a longtime Little Falls resident, said the increasing intensity of flooding in the town is frustrating.

"We get screwed in this town every time," she said.

But even though her car dealership in Garfield is flooded and she lost many things in the water that came up through the foundation of her townhouse, the recently-divorced woman was making the best of it.

"Well... It forced me to clean out my 20-years-of-marriage stuff," she said.

Don Dowling, a Caldwell plumber, has been trying to pump out the basement of his client, the Rare Steak House, on Main Street. Though he's been at it since Sunday, the water keeps coming back.

Across the river, Robert Sullivan evacuated his home yesterday as the water kept rising.

"Normally, I ride it out, but it's higher than it's ever been," he said, carrying his laptop and a bottle of liquor on the walk along the railroad tracks to his hotel room. "When it hit my electric meter, I figured it was time for me to leave."

But Sullivan is doing best to keep his head above water.

"I'm just going to look at it like I'm on vacation," he said. "I'll be okay."